


Baggage

by DenDragon14



Series: Aftermath [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Implied Attraction, M/M, One Shot, Other, Self-Indulgent, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenDragon14/pseuds/DenDragon14
Summary: Axel decided to stay with Destiny's Children. He wasn't sure how long he intended to stay, but right now, it was headed toward a half year mark. And even with all his time spent among the peace-loving, free souls, he still doesn't quite fit in.All the emotions he's been harboring deep inside for the past several months come rushing to the surface after Keechie offers him a massage.
Relationships: Axel & Keechie, Axel/Keechie (if you squint)
Series: Aftermath [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918996
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	Baggage

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS AHEAD: If you are not caught up on season 2 of TUA, I highly suggest you do not read this since it takes place after season 2.
> 
> So, this is my first time writing Axel, so I hope I wrote him half-ways decent. I recently haven't been doing as much writing as I want to, so this idea is about a week's worth of writing. And now that one idea has appeared, several more showed up in my head not long after. But this idea has been in my head long enough...literally been going to bed with this stuck in my brain. So yeah, I needed to write it.
> 
> Enjoy! And excuse any typos or errors; I've edited as best as I could and I try to stop my perfectionism before it becomes too problematic.

In the end, he stayed.  
  
He wasn’t really sure why.  
  
He thought it made sense since he had nowhere to go, and no one to turn to. Everyone he’d loved and everyone he'd had left in his life had been suddenly, and brutally ripped from him. His old life was so covered in cobwebs and dust that it had disintegrated. His closest friends, his brothers, were no longer among the living, one of them done in by his own hands. He was a time traveler stuck without the device that allowed him to travel through the timeline. Although, it had been of his own free will to not grab a briefcase and jump to a different point in time. He stranded himself and when he thought on it, it really didn’t matter to him whether he was stuck in 1963 or 2063. He was entirely alone in the world. Alone at any point, no matter where in the timeline.  
  
When the brightly colored bus stopped next to him and he was invited on, Axel briefly contemplated declining the offer and continue his meander down the long stretch of road ahead. He thought that the engulfing feeling of loneliness was what changed his mind and made him get on. That or the over-eager generosity of the man that invited him on. Either way though, it was nice that he didn’t have to walk all the way back into the city; he’d be walking well into nightfall if he did.  
  
The people inside the bus were loud, although none of them seemed bothered by his presence. In fact, they seemed rather welcoming, although all their smiles were slightly unnerving since they seemed like smiles of madmen. The bus rode back into Dallas and they were kind enough to drop him off at the house that he and his brothers had been occupying for their mission.  
  
He entered to gather his few belongings he brought along. After a moment of thought, out of sentimentality, he grabbed Otto's favorite gun and Oscar's milkman cap and shoved them to the bottom of his bag. When he came back outside, the bus was thankfully still parked out front.

He left the front door open for the cats, no doubt they'd all wander out eventually. He knew that that was not what Oscar would have wanted, to have his furry beasts wandering about on the streets, but Axel had no reason to stay in that old woman's house anymore. Even though their stay had been short, it still held memories that were painful for Axel to replay and he didn't need his memories eating away at his sanity as well as his guilt. That place held some of the last interactions he had had with his brothers, and he didn't want to keep squeezing lemon juice in his open wounds.  
  
The man smiled, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Coming aboard for the ride?"  
He nodded. For now, he'd ride with the colorfully strange and loud people; it would give him some time to think about what he would do with himself.  
  
One day turned into a week.  
  
A week into a month.  
  
A month into several months. He still wasn’t sure why he stayed with Destiny’s Children. He thought it might be because no one was asking him to leave. And no one was asking anything from him. And with his life being up in the air at the moment, he was content to stay with them and sort his thoughts and think things through. He wasn’t even sure how much time he would need until he decided to move on with himself.  
  
Axel had had his fair share of run-ins with rather colorful individuals, but he had never met a group quite like Destiny’s Children. They had to be among the most peace-loving and laid back group he’d seen in a long time. They were definitely on the opposite end of the personality spectrum compared to Axel, but it was a refreshing sight for his eyes and their conversations and activities kept him amused, to say the least. Although he stayed with Destiny’s Children in the long haul, he did not partake in their activities. Not at first anyway. Many times they had tried to persuade him into joining but his persistent refusal seemed to finally get through to them after he had snapped at them rather harshly. Instead, he merely watched as they went about doing whatever it was did throughout the day.  
  
Prayer.  
  
Meditation.  
  
Singing and dancing.  
  
Gardening.  
  
And other strangeness that he couldn’t really place a title or name to.  
  
The one follower that continued to interact and try and get the conversation out of Axel on a regular basis was the same man that invited him aboard the bus, Keechie. From what Axel understood about this little cult was that Keechie was a substitute for their great leader, The Prophet. He was rather chatty, so it was more like he was talking _at_ Axel and not _to_ him, but honestly, Axel didn’t mind. He’d never really been much of a talker in the first place, that was what he enjoyed about working with his brothers so much, they didn't even need to speak with one another to understand each other.  
  
Keechie was the only one that Axel had given his name to. The others never paid him much mind since they’d gotten the message that he did not want to participate in their activities and odd, devout worship. However, unlike the others, where they were content to leave him be, Keechie always seemed to seek him out and strangely, Axel didn't mind his company.  
  
They never stayed in one place for too long. Like their souls, this colorful bunch liked to be free and float from place to place. The most recent of places they’d found to rest their heads was a large ranch outside of a small town. At this point, he had lost track of what cities they’d passed through or even what state they were in. The old couple living on the ranch allowed them to stay as long as needed as long as they offered to help around with the chores since they weren’t as able-bodied as they use to be. This type of work, Axel was used to. It reminded him of his old life, long before he and his brothers had been recruited to become assassins. It kept both his body and his mind busy and by the end of the day, he was often too exhausted to get lost and drown in the depression of memory lane.  
  
Due to the lack of room on the ranch and the abundance of followers that fit on the bus, many of them slept in tents or up in the hayloft in the barn. However, being a stand-in for their Prophet, Keechie had taken one of the two guest rooms the house had. He'd invited Axel to share the room since the other guest room was occupied by several of the girls. He'd taken the offer only because it posed a much comfier place to rest his head at the end of the day compared to the hard ground in a sleeping bag.  
  
He'd just finished a long day of work of hauling hay bales and sheering sheep among other dirty work. The sun, for the majority of the day, had been a relentless onlooker and by noon, Axel was covered in sweat. Upon entering the ranch house, he'd grabbed a glass of water and then made his way up to the room he was sharing with Keechie in hopes to rest before someone decided to cook dinner. He entered the room to find Keechie in there, rolling up a yoga mat as he turned off a small radio that had been playing a very trance like type of music.  
  
“Axel! Perfect timing. Would you like a massage?” The question wasn’t random. He recalled how last week, Keechie and some of the others had ignited an innate interest in massages and the benefits it offered to the body. It had been quite a scene to see them all in a circle, massaging each other's backs, humming some ridiculous mantra of peace. “After a hard days work, you must be sore.”  
  
Axel smirked and pulled his shirt over his head, deciding to humor the man, and sat on the bed, his back to Keechie. He _was_ sore from the work he completed today anyways, a massage would be nice, he supposed although Axel had never been one much for the touch of others. The only touch he had truly tolerated in life had been that of his brothers and his mother. However, it had been years since he’d seen his mother, and sadly, he couldn’t jump back in time to see her, and their mother, like Oscar and Otto, were no longer among the living.  
  
For the amount of time he’d been with Destiny’s Children, he’d learned that none of them harvested any ill will or contempt toward others. They were a pure type of people that Axel only remembered seeing in children; it was refreshing but at the same time slightly disturbing because Axel knew he stuck out like a sore thumb compared to them. And from the amount of time he’d been there, he supposed that Keechie was the only one he had any trust in.  
  
Keechie knelt down on the bed behind him and placed his hands upon Axel’s shoulders. His hands were warm to the touch and Axel could feel several callouses on his palms and fingertips, probably from years of doing gardening work.  
“You are very tense,” Keechie chuckled. He started with his shoulders and neck, which Axel had to admit felt very good. Slowly, he started to work his hands in harder into Axel’s shoulders, the heel of his hands digging into his flesh while his thumbs rubbed up toward his neck. hands moved downward and started on his mid and lower back He gasped as Keechie’s thumb and knuckles dug into the flesh on his back in a particular spot where Axel could definitely tell there was a knot in the muscles and inhaled sharply through his nose.  
  
As Keechie worked on the knot, Axel inhaled heavily through his nose as a sudden tingling sensation ran all over his back out from the knotted muscle. Another strange, tingling sensation ran the length of several of his nerves that sent an uncomfortable shiver up his spine. He closed his eyes and tried to relax as Keechie continued to knead and rub his back. For the most part, his touch was nice, although he suddenly couldn't ignore a twinge of pain that he was feeling in his chest, over his heart. He exhaled heavily and tried to ignore it and remind himself that this was supposed to be relaxing.  
  
He focused on his breathing and was somewhat able to relax his body and mind as he counted his breaths, but was suddenly drawn back to the present as he felt something wet hit his hand. He glanced down at his hands that rested on his knees, slowly realizing that a tear had fallen onto the back of one his hands. One hand came up to his eyes and he realized that tears were silently streaming down his face. He wiped at the tears, blinking and sniffing as more threatened to fall.   
  
“Did I hurt you?”  
  
“Nej, jag mar bra.” The presence of Keechie’s hands left his back and the mattress wobbled as Keechie moved so he sat on the bed next to Axel. Keechie’s brow was furrowed in confusion, at a lost cause no doubt when it came to the foreign words. One hand wiped at the tears on his face as he tried to hide his face from Keechie. Why the hell was he crying? Axel sniffed as more tears threatened to fall while he felt a drying trail on his cheeks from where previous tears fell.  
  
“It is completely normal to become emotional during something like a massage. It allows toxins to leave your body. It’s not a bad thing. It is making you better.” If it was such a good thing, why did he suddenly feel absolutely awful? Why was he crying like someone had chopped a bundle of onions in front of him? Was he that polluted with toxins? ...Probably.  
  
Ever since he had joined the colorful band of misfits, Axel had trouble sleeping most nights. More so than he normally did. His mind painted horrid, vivid scenes of his brothers' dying in many different ways, and each time Axel was unsuccessful at saving them.  
  
If he looked into himself, there was a horrible sadness that pulled on his heartstrings but he’d never been one for expressing his emotions so it was kept inside, festering and eating away at him like a parasite. And among this sadness and his tears, which still dripped down his face, there was anger and frustration that boiled deep inside like rising lava inside a volcano. How long it had been growing and burning, he wasn’t sure, but now it suddenly burned hot and spread all over his body.  
  
He cried out in outrage and got to his feet. Blindly, he swung his arm out at the closest thing, which happened to be the nightstand. The lamp toppled to the ground, the bulb shattering, and the alarm clock followed it down. The stuff on the dresser was next. The small little plants were knocked to the ground, their pots cracking on impact as dirt spilled out. Keechie still sat on the bed and watched with uncertainty as Axel destroyed part of the room. In the back of his head, he knew that the belongings weren’t even theirs to begin with. It belonged to the elderly couple that had allowed them to stay; no doubt they’d have to pay or replace the items he broke.  
  
He exhaled heavily and ran a hand through his hair and sat back down on the edge of the bed. More tears slowly trickled down his face. He pressed the heel of his hands to his eyes and groaned in frustration. What the hell was wrong with him? After a moment of silence, Keechie, seemingly unfazed at Axel’s outburst, placed a hand on Axel’s knee.  
  
“Perhaps you should rest.”  
  
“Tro mig, jag försökte .” He knew that none of Destiny's Children understood Swedish, and if they did, none of them had let on about it. But even though there was a little bit of a language barrier, Keechie seemed to understand his words. Not so much of what was said, but how they were said. In all honesty, he was tired, exhausted even, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t hear it in his own voice.  
  
His mind wandered back to the barn that he had shot The Handler in. Her death was satisfying considering she had been the root of his troubles, to begin with. He would have seen it through to kill the Hargreeves, considering that that had been the mission in the first place and one of them was responsible for Otto’s death. Sadly, the death of their targets and revenge would not bring his brothers back. Could not bring his brothers back. He reminded himself that he needed to learn to live without their presence in his life; it was the same thing he had told himself after his grandmother’s and mother’s passing.  
  
But everyone has a breaking point; he’d learned that well when he had been in training for the Commission. His brothers, although allies and fellow assassins, were his Achilles heel. He knew that, his brothers had known that, as had the Handler. And perhaps she had seen that weakness and used it against him. Perhaps he'd reached his breaking point and had shoved down all the emotions and trauma in attempt to hide the fact that something inside was indeed broken.  
  
Enough. He supposed that since getting dropped into 1963 on a mission, he’d had enough of just about everything. People. Culture shock. The Commission. It was time for a break, he supposed, and perhaps why that was the true reason as to why he joined this strange religious group.  
  
And here this man was offering comfort. He didn’t even know Axel all that well and here he was treating Axel like an old friend. If he hadn't been feeling so off, he would have declined the offer to rest, but the warmth of the covers and the softness of the pillows were overly tempting. He kicked off his work boots and allowed himself to lie back against the pillows and climbed underneath the covers. Sleep came much quicker than he expected, like a punch to the face.

* * *

From the moment he got onto the bus, Keechie had been intrigued by the lone, white-blond haired stranger they found walking alongside the road in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t unusual for them to pick up travelers or hitch-hikers along their way, but Keechie thought that this lone man seemed a bit different compared to those he’d ferried along down the road before. Upon the first meeting, he thought that Axel was mute. He wouldn’t have been the first mute that Keechie had met, but it certainly added to the air of mystery around him.  
  
However, the thought of him being a mute was proved incorrect as he had politely told Keechie to "shut the hell up"; that had to be well into a month since he’d joined Destiny’s Children. And he hadn’t learned the man’s name until about month three. Keechie had never encountered a more strange individual than Axel, but at the same time, there was something about the man that interested Keechie greatly; he also realized that Axel was a good listener, although he wasn't quite sure if that was because his English was limited or if he was just a generally quiet soul.

He’d been slightly startled when Axel had broken down into tears; ever since the man had joined Destiny’s Children he seemed very aloof and withdrawn and was what Keechie label as cold. The sudden outburst seemed more fitting to Axel's character but he shouldn't be one to judge. Everyone had their story, and some people preferred to keep pages of their stories hidden longer than others. It had taken him months before he’d allowed his own mental walls to completely disintegrate. Still, it was nice to see past Axel's barricades a bit, even though he suspected that the man hated feeling vulnerable.  
  
Axel had fallen asleep very quickly and Keechie had climbed into bed as quiet as possible so he didn't wake his bed mate. He had just settled and gotten comfortable when Axel had rolled over in his sleep and his arm draped over him and his head moved to rest slightly onto Keechie's chest. Keechie didn't move, content to stay still to allow the blond-haired man to rest.  
  
There was a soft knock at the door before the knob clicked as it opened slowly. Jill’s head poked into the room before she opened the door wider. She was dressed in a nightgown, ready for bed, her hair down, hanging above her shoulders. She spotted Axel asleep on the bed, using Keechie as a pillow, and flushed slightly.  
  
“Oh, forgive me,” she said, bowing her head slightly, “I didn’t know you were sleeping with company tonight.”  
  
“It’s not a problem, Jill,” he replied in a low whisper. “Axel was in need of rest and comfort.”  
  
“Axel? That’s his name?” she asked. She smiled softly as she stared at his sleeping form for a moment. “It seems fitting for him."  
  
“What did you need?”  
  
She shook her head. “It can wait until the morning. Have a pleasant night, Keechie.”

* * *

The window in the room was positioned perfectly for the morning light to shine through the blinds and directly into Axel’s face. From the short period of time they’d been there on the ranch, he’d been up before the sun. Due to his outburst last night, the shattered lightbulb from the lamp and the alarm clock still laid on the floor, so the alarm he normally used had not been set.  
  
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, thankful for the full night's rest; it had definitely been needed to recharge his batteries. The brief thought about sleeping in even later passed briefly through his mind and he readjusted his sleeping position, getting comfortable again before a sudden realization dawned upon him.

His pillow was breathing.   
  
He squinted and shielded his eyes with his hand and took a decent look at what he had been resting his head upon. When he realized that he was in fact using Keechie as a pillow, he all but pushed the man away as he moved over to his situated half of the bed and tried to cool the sudden heat that had rushed to his face. The sudden motion seemed to rouse Keechie from his slumber since the man stirred and threw the covers off himself before pushing himself up into a sitting position.  
  
“Good morning. Did you sleep well? It certainly seemed like you needed it."  
  
"Jag sov bra, tack." He got out of the bed and pulled on his work boots. Kicking aside some of the broken bits of plant pottery and the shattered lightbulb, Axel quickly grabbed a fresh shirt from the dresser drawer and slowly shrugged his shirt on over his head. He could sense Keechie's eyes on him as it was making his skin crawl in an uncomfortable manner. He cleared his throat and turned to the shorter man.  
  
“Apologies,” he muttered, “About last night.”

Keechie smiled at him and waved his words away as he went about making up his side of the bed. “We all have our own baggage,” he said. “I’m not one to judge. But I hope that you’ll someday be able to understand that I’m willing to help you carry some of that baggage, friend.” He smiled again, his eyes wrinkling at the corners with the gesture.  
  
Friend? Could Keechie be considered a friend? Axel had never been good at making friends. His only friends had been his brothers; and any friends he recalled having as a child were often scared away by their father. But, if joining the colorful, free souls of Destiny’s Children was a sign that he had turned over a new leaf, then perhaps Axel could make the best of this new start. Making friends would be nice since his mind tended to get dark sometimes and trap him in a mental prison; and insanity looked good on no man.  
  
Yes, a friend would be nice.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, and if you're wondering about the Swedish that is written, I don't know a lot so I was using a translator.  
> In order:  
> -"No, I'm fine."  
> -"Believe me, I've tried."  
> -"I slept well, thank you."
> 
> And I actually did look up if there was an emotional connection to massages. Apparently, it is not uncommon to feel emotional. I have never had a massage, but I definitely think I really need one.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little one shot! Feel free to leave kudos, comments or constructive criticism; all of it is appreciated!


End file.
